Gov. Scott Walker officially joins the 2016 race

It had been planned since the beginning of July, when Governor Scott Walker filed his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, that his formal announcement would come on July 13. Well, that day has arrived and Walker will be launching a 2016 presidential campaign from his home state of Wisconsin with an Iowa tour to follow.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker jumped Monday into a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates that already includes more than a half dozen current and former governors.

Walker, 47, hopes to set himself apart as a Harley-riding, average American anchored by Midwest values who is a proven fighter and winner.

He has logged three election victories in the past four years, and one of those battles – a 2012 recall attempt – is sure to be center stage as he launches his presidential bid. Monday afternoon’s announcement event will be in the same Waukesha exposition center where he celebrated his victory over those who tried to recall him from office.

Early Monday morning, Walker tweeted: “I’m in. I’m running for president because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them.”

Here is the tweet from Walker’s campaign accompanied by a video outlining his platform:

As noted, Walker will be speaking this afternoon at a kickoff rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin. From there he’ll be headed to a blitz in Iowa where his tour will eventually take him to all 99 counties. That’s a good place to start for Walker since he’s currently leading the Iowa caucus polling averages, almost by double digits.

Full video of Walker’s announcement speech to follow this afternoon. Stay tuned.

About the Author

Nate Ashworth is the Founder and Senior Editor of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for almost a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016.

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Progressive Republican

“I’m in. I’m running for president because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them.”

right

Let’s take a brief look at his record, shall we?

Around the time of his being sworn in, Wisconsin could claim one of the better economic recoveries in the country. Employment had grown at a faster pace than most states, and the value of Wisconsin’s publicly traded companies was up around 40%. Tax revenue had risen more than 50%.

Then came Scotty.

Over the next four years Wisconsin’s economic performance dropped to 35th in the country.

Impressive.

Since he became governor, average household income in Wisconsin has grown 12.4%; better than some of its neighbors, but still half a percentage point less than the median, and looking fairly bad compaired to Minnesota.

The state’s private-sector job growth has also been lackluster — up 5.6% since 2011 trailing Minnesota (6.8%), Michigan (6.7%) and Iowa (5.7%). At the same time, home prices have increased just 1.8%, compared with an increase of 6.7 percent for the median state.

There’s a reason for that. People are leaving; at least those that can still afford to.

The state’s corporations fare little better with the value of shares for Wisconsin companies increasing less than those of neighboring states like Michigan and Minnesota, and less than the median state.

State tax revenue has slowed to a crawl of just 4% between the first quarter of 2011 and the third quarter of last year, compared with a 20% increase for the median state.

So the news that Wisconsin was skipping a scheduled $108 million debt payment, owing to an unexpected budget shortfall, only underlined a trend that’s been years in the making. Of the 40 states with general-obligation bonds, 25 have credit ratings from Moody’s that are better than Wisconsin’s.

He signed a so-called “right to work bill” that says private-sector workers don’t have to pay union fees if they don’t want to, but the unions are still obligated to represent them.

Because fair.

Walker called this “one more big tool” for attracting jobs to his state.

That’s worked so well that Wisconsin has dropped to 40th in the nation for job growth.

Seems he has a different definition for the word “attracting” than any dictionary I’ve seen.

He has cut both income and property taxes, but the cuts have been fiscally irresponsible. He now has a $283 million budget deficit to deal with, and is looking at a $2 billion shortfall in the state’s two-year budget cycle that begins in July and is now vowing to skip another upcoming debt payment.

In the year before he became governor, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate fell from 9% to 8%, as the U.S. economy began to recover from the Recession. The national rate, meantime, fell from 9.9% to 9.2%.

After Walker took over Wisconsin’s rate fell from 8% to 5% , but the national rate, in the meantime, fell from 9.2% to 5.7%; a somewhat higher rate.

Into his second term he’s still 91,000 jobs shy of what he promised by the end of his first term. Private-sector job growth between June 2013 and June 2014 (the latest data available) was 1.3% compared to 2.1% nationwide.

I could go on, but this is already probably too long. It’s just so damned hard to stop when you;re on a roll, y’know?